Kansas to receive $13.5 million grant for work training program

Kansas will be one of 10 states to receive a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to develop work training programs for food stamp recipients, Gov. Sam Brownback announced Monday at a news conference where he was joined by federal and state officials.

The state will receive $13.5 million in federal funding to go toward the creation of the GOALS program –the acronym stands for Generating Opportunities to Attain Lifelong Success – which will build on the state’s existing employment and training program.

The grant will enable the Department for Children and Families to expand the program from eight to 35 counties, including Sedgwick, Butler, Harvey and Cowley.

Brownback said the objective of the program is to give people tools to lift themselves from poverty. He added that reducing the number of people in poverty in the state would be a major focus of his second term.

“There’s just not a cookie cutter on this. …You’ve got to be granular, you’ve got to be specific and you’ve got to help that person so they can be able to move forward and realize their potential,” the governor said.

The job training will vary based on the industry needs of each region.

“You’re training the person for the job, not for a G.E.D. or something that’s generic,” Brownback said, adding that rural and urban counties would have significantly different job needs. “You would just really need to design it for the job base that’s there in those communities.”

The state requires able-bodied adults without children and between ages of 18 and 49 to work at least 20 hours a week or be enrolled in a job training program in order to keep food assistance benefits. Brownback said the federal funding helps the state to provide that training for people.

“This is not training for training’s sake,” said USDA Administrator Audrey Rowe, who joined Brownback in Topeka. “This is training for a job.”

She said one important component of the Kansas program would be navigators that will stick with beneficiaries after they complete the training in case they hit challenges. “If there’s someone there to be alongside of them and to work with them and they can get counsel from, then it helps them to remain in the employment marketplace,” she said.

The grant is made possible through the 2014 farm bill, which every member of the state’s congressional delegation voted against with the exception of U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran. A sticking point for many congressional Republicans was the cost of food assistance programs.

Brownback endorsed Republican efforts at the federal level to shift food federal food assistance programs to a block grant system.

Rowe criticized that stance, saying it would hurt federal oversight and quality of service.

“You lose a lot of administrative efficiencies and all of the protections that individuals experience under federal law if you had a different program operating in every state,” Rowe said.

Brownback said after the news conference that he believes states could better implement a program according to their local needs.

Contributing: Associated Press

This story was originally published March 23, 2015 at 12:53 PM with the headline "Kansas to receive $13.5 million grant for work training program."